


dying, Egypt

by JadeLupine



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Anal Sex, Angst, Antony and Cleopatra AU, Biting, Bondage, Egyptian AU, Fingering, Kissing, Love, M/M, Oral Sex, Romance, Suicide, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-29 00:30:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6351715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeLupine/pseuds/JadeLupine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erwin Smith, decorated general of the Roman empire and one of the triumvirs of the republic, visits Egypt to find the spoilt Pharaoh, who takes what he wants, whatever he wants, even love. Under the heated Egyptian sun, love turns to lust and lust deforms back into love.<br/><i></i><br/>“Why am I here?” Erwin looks at Levi, how the eyeliner had smudged ever so slightly in the corners. “Perhaps it is because I have learned to be used to the infernal sun. The Roman wind combating with the Egyptian sun.”<br/>“Amon and Ra,” Levi agrees. “Amon-Ra.”<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	dying, Egypt

**Author's Note:**

> well here we go, the eruri egyptian au, written for the sole purpose of angry sex and levi in eyeliner. based loosely around shakespeare's antony and cleopatra. 
> 
> Caesar: the title of emperor in ancient rome
> 
> also, this is less historical accuracy and more shakespeare. 
> 
> hope u enjoy and leave a review!

“I hear the Pharaoh is arrogant.” Mike Zacharius, lieutenant to Erwin Smith, stood on the deck on the rolling ship and looked balefully into the wild sun. “That he beguiles and deceives. A cunning boy.”

“Dear Mike,” Erwin walked forward to stand next to the taller man. His stature was broad and his hair either a field of hay or a bushel of gold depending on what light you looked at it, curling at the back of his neck. He was not in battle armor, and instead wore a light tunic to seem more equal to his soldiers although he remained the most decorated general and one of the triumvirs of the Empire. “I have the whole at Rome at my feet, as much as I love the people, they fall at my knees more. Do you think I will be foiled by a king of Egypt? I will grind him to dust if need be.”

“It’s best you don’t,” Mike gave his superior a pointed look, before tapping him familiarly on the arm. “Erwin – we need Egypt on our side, and be damned if we lose the kingdom because you…as you say it… ground the King to dust.”

“Eh,” Erwin shrugs, the lilt of his voice and tilt of his shoulders betraying that he was merely in jest. “The Pharaoh can’t be too terrible. Darius Caesar had a good opinion of him.”

“I hear he’s a sodomite.” Mike said darkly, looking at the waves crash on the hull in soft feathers. “I know it is no sin – but… the Egyptian sun will do things to many men who had previously been strong. Keep the Pharaoh at arms length, General. If you know what's good for you and for Rome.”

-

General Erwin felt like a tectonic plate had shifted right under his feet. The Pharaoh was beautiful – it is no word for any man except Levi. His eyes were pale but outlined in the darkest of blacks, the finest strains of Egyptian and Greek blood running through him like the notes of a distant lute. The sneer on his face as he looked at Erwin’s delegation curled his cheek like a beckoning finger, his skin darkened by years under the hot, cruel sun and his crown clashing with his feathery black hair.

“Is _this_ how the pride of Rome greets me?” Levi’s nostrils dilate as he smirks at them. “The handsome general the entirety of your blasted empire talks about… turns up dirty and sweaty, in a _tunic_? My, my… the Caesars must be declining. To send me their decorated soldiers in such rags? Ah, the poverty of empires...”

“Sir,” Erwin bows deeply before the king while wanting nothing more than to punch the living daylights out of him. “It was a long journey, and the dust in this country is horrendous. We counted on your famed hospitality to revive us before we were brought to meet you.”

“Ah, rude from the start. That’s more like it.” The Pharaoh actually winked, and beckoned to one of his advisers, a person with floppy black hair and an earnest expression. “Hanji, I wish you to see this… great ruler… to the quarters next to mine. Bring him some water to bathe in, as he claims it is my lack of hospitality that brings him to me looking like a cat caught in a sandstorm. Then, General Erwin, we shall speak of country and kings. The rest of you, take the soldiers to the quarters we have for the Romans, and provide them with slaves.”

“Honoured, my lord.” Erwin bowed, and walked out of the room led by Hanji, so he addresses them. “This pharaoh is young, is he not?”

“Young enough, General,” Hanji tells him as she leads him through the palace. “He came into the kingdom at an age where children are most likely to be spoiled, and spoiled he has become. His beauty had attracted suitors from noblewomen across Egypt – yet he declines them all, and prefers to play harem with his eunuchs and castle-boys. He has seen himself as a god from a very young age – and you must excuse him for it, General. Our ways are unlike yours.”

“Yes,” Erwin said dryly. “You worship your kings, we murder ours.”

“He is also very obsessed with cleanliness – possibly that was what disappointed him about your arrival.” Hanji looked him straight in the face and smiled, her black hair flopping down over her face. “He’s still young at heart, and was waiting excitedly for these handsome white men in full Roman glory – after the old Darius Caesar and their political alliance, he wanted glamour.”

“Ah,” Erwin raised his eyebrows. “And he gets a set of sweaty soldiers covered in dirt, wearing old rags. Must be the disappointment of his life.”

“Bear with him, General,” Hanji smiles. “He’s a God in the eyes of our country, and the people look up to him. These are your quarters – and these are Levi’s. I hope you will freshen up in time to speak with him. The water is already there – we advisors have more experience with you Romans than the Pharaoh.”

Erwin looks around the palatial room before disrobing to step into the icy bath, using the rough sackcloth to rub away the grit on his skin. He thinks of home, and wonders if Nile was still trying to be the sole Caesar instead of leading as a triumvir with the three generals. He recalls the twisting pull of inertia as he looked into the Pharaoh’s grey eyes outlined in black and the glint of white teeth in his sneer. Erwin smiles, his blue eyes narrowing as he steps out of the bath and kneels to wash his hair. He clothes himself in a clean white Egyptian tunic and places his sword in it’s scabbard loosely around his waist – just to remind this Levi who he truly was, before he walks out of the room and into Levi’s quarters.

“Ah,” Levi scoffs as he enters the room. The king was sitting on his bed, feet up on cushions and a silky cat lay dozing next to him. “So you _are_ a white man after all. Was beginning to think they sent me my Egyptians dressed as Romans.”

“Thank you for the hospitality, Pharaoh,” Erwin looks around the room and decides to sit in a chair close to Levi’s bed to both show dominance and respect. He loosens his sword and leans back.

“Now, tell me the state of Rome now, General. Is it as turbulent as I hear it is? Darius Caesar is dead I believe?” Levi leans forward on the bed, still stroking his cat. “What happened, you lot went on another murder spree?”

“It was a group of men, not I.” Erwin brushed his hair back from his face. “He was a good man, if not a good ruler. A sole person taking power, a sole Caesar is not what we need, with the Empire expanding to this extent. So we have split the power.”

“Eh,” Levi frowns. “Three Gods instead of one? How fitting. Like a child playing with dolls. You can have sweets, you can have sweets, you can have sweets…. and _you_ get murdered.”

-

Levi watches himself in the reflection of Erwin’s eyes and wonders if he is disappearing, vapour under the Egyptian sun. The general and he were having yet another conversation, flirtation hidden under politics on the balcony whose stones were hot to the touch. He watches Erwin as he enthuses about the glories of his Empire, watches the sweat on his forehead drip down his face, watches his golden hair toss and his large hands gesture. The general was the biggest man he had seen, towering over Levi and his advisors and it took all the Pharaoh had to keep him at heel.

“Why are you here, general?” Levi interrupts the man. “It has been a month. There is no more need for you staying here, dirtying my palace with you and your white men and your tendency not to bathe everyday.”

“We _do_ ,” Erwin defended himself, bright eyed and laughing as he raised his hands in supplication. “Just in water, like the ordinary populace. We cannot all afford the milk of asses to bathe in.”

“Tell me why you are here.” Levi grips the heavy brocade of the curtains that led from the balcony to the meeting rooms, and twirls a thread around his finger. “Why you have not gone back to Rome. Your Empire is getting bigger, day by day, and as I hear – beginning to crumble from the centre.”

“Yes,” Erwin frowns. “Nile is thinking of taking power back from the triumvir system, and ruling as a sole Caesar. He currently _is_ the new Caesar, somewhat, as I am here and Pixis is at the east. Mike tells me he is trying to build his army with those who are loyal only to him.”

He looks into the blinding sun, and smiles.

“Why am I here?” Erwin looks at Levi, how the eyeliner had smudged ever so slightly in the corners. “Perhaps it is because I have learned to be used to the infernal sun. The Roman wind combating with the Egyptian sun.”

“Amon and Ra,” Levi agrees. “Amon-Ra.”

-

“Rome is turning itself over again,” Mike tugs the messages from Erwin’s hands and looks at it hastily. “This is the fourth messenger that has come here with the same damn message, Erwin. Nile is trying to take your power as triumvir away from you.”

“What care do I have for power?” Erwin smiles, watching Mike bristle. “Lieutenant, I will go to Rome in due course. As good an orator as I have been… I am tired of foul politics and relentless rebellion. This Egypt – it’s desert and it’s sands…”

“Has gone to your head!” Mike threw the letters down on the table and glared at his superior officer. “You have been inflamed by Egypt, and have no care for home!”

“Yes.” Erwin sits back on a long sofa crafted almost throne-like, and places his head on cushions. “I have been inflamed by Egypt.”

Mike kneels.

“Commander,” he murmurs. “I only wish you will not regret your actions later. Egypt is loving, but Rome is yours.”

-

The general has been leaving Levi gifts lately, secreted into the nooks of meeting rooms and living quarters. A carved horse, a Roman coin, all dropped into hiding places in the long, languid hours of the stretching afternoons.

“You should eat more, Pharaoh” he said as Levi toyed with his food.

“Just because _you_ dine like a behemoth,” Levi scoffed. “Not to mention your damn mountain of a lieutenant and all your giant soldiers – you worry why I’m going hungry.”

“Ah, I had _heard_ the King of Egypt was a mere boy at heart,” Erwin moved closer to the Pharaoh’s place at the table, bringing his plate with him. “And I know they are right now – he eats like a child. Only dates and milk, the diet of infants.”

“It’s boring.” Levi tossed his plate aside. “And I am not hungry.”

Erwin looks at him like he’s a frail thing, sharp edges and easily breakable bones. He knows Erwin had always thought he was beautiful. Do you think I am a God, he wants to ask Erwin – or do you love me as a man?

He doesn’t ask.

“Eat this,” Erwin folds up a mouthful of bread and meat and brings it to Levi’s lips. “You are the first King I know who doesn’t like meat. No wonder you are so slight.”

Levi opened his mouth, and accepted the tough, chewy beef. Erwin’s fingers brushed his lips – his fingers are rough like a slave’s. A knife above his breastbone renders it impossible to swallow and fault lines crack through his body. He chokes the meat down and touches the curvature of Erwin’s cheekbones, the lines of his jaw. He feels like the sun under silica, burning and converging onto a focal point, so he draws up to taste Erwin’s lips, far sweeter than dates and milk. He had always been used to taking what he wanted.

Erwin draws back from the kiss, his eyes glittering in a smile.

“You spoilt child.”

-

 

Erwin watches Levi raise himself from an ornate bathtub filled with milk, and notes him rinse away the remainder. Something stirs within his belly, the stench of longing and heated dreams. He walked forward, and places his arms on the naked Pharaoh’s shoulders, lets his hands slide down the tanned, wiry arms and the hands too soft for any soldier.

“Egypt,” he whispers into Levi’s ear. He laughs into his hair and Levi leans into him and upward. Erwin’s heart seemed to swell as he presses against Levi’s mouth, the swell of an apple in bloom. He kisses him again, and once more on the side of the cheek. The sun beat down through the windows, blowing sand on the floor through the cracks. Levi has pictured this man as a knight in shining armor when he has never even seen him with armor – he pulls Erwin’s tunic off, and watches the sweat glimmer on the general’s chest.

This, he thinks – is the Roman armor.

“I am in love with Egypt,” Erwin smiles, pushing Levi backward slowly till his knees touched the softness of the bed and he had to sit. The general kneels before him, looking upward. “I am in love with Egypt, with it’s roaring, angry sun – with it’s biting dust, with it’s abrasive sand.”

“I am in love with Egypt.” He lets his face fall forward to Levi’s belly, presses a kiss and speaks through it. “I am in love, Egypt.”

With a sudden, flighty movement, Erwin looms over Levi and his weight pushes Levi on the bed, almost crushing him. Perhaps, Erwin thinks as his face is hot between Levi’s open legs, this was a story like the Gods. Like Hercules, like Neptune and Mars, a God of Egypt falling in love with a mortal. Breathless, as he began to thrust slowly into the smaller man – divine and godliness would prevail, but their reality was bitter and merciless even in the depths of fantasy and happiness. His Gods, or Levi’s – Jupiter or Ra, somebody must notice them and wish them joy. He begs, his breath rasping as he comes over Levi’s flat stomach, the other man shuddering to add to the whiteness. Levi’s liquid eyes open, the black liner smudged all the way to his hairline with ecstatic tears. Erwin gathers him close on the bed, the coolness of the sheets enveloping them as if hugging their sin.

“I love you, Egypt,” he groans.

-

“I’m not going back without you,” Erwin tells the pharaoh, crouches in front of him. Levi looks at him, hand on his cheek and god, he wants to hold this man, entomb him within himself. Erwin’s ring catches the light again. Levi bites his lip, and kisses him as the sun shines full on their heads, heating them up.

It was always going to be us.

It is in the name of our Gods.

-

 

“Nile has imprisoned Pixis, and has signed claim to your share of the empire to “the ruling monarch.” He’s also sending a fleet this way in the next couple of months if you do not return to Rome.” Mike threw the parchment at Erwin. “I apologize deeply for my insubordinance, sir, but Rome is tearing itself apart in your absence, while you dawdle here! Erwin, you must –“

“I _know_ what I must do,” Erwin thundered, rising from his seat. “I am aware I should leave Egypt. The sun and dust – to leave it behind for the winter of Rome. I know, Mike – and I will heed this time.”

“Erwin,” Mike sighed. “At least claim the court by marrying into it. Nile’s sister, Marie –“

“I do not want a _woman_ ,” Erwin scoffed, waving his hand. “I will reclaim my territory with force. I will kill if it need be although I hope it need not be. Then, I will return to Eg-“

“I know.” Mike snapped. “But marry, at least. Marry into Nile’s family so that you have claim to the Caesar title.”

“Lieutenant,” Erwin threated, his eyes dark like the shadows on the desert night. The sun glows red across his cheeks and he glowers at Mike. “I will not marry.”

“Why?” Mike sinks down into the chair Erwin had recently vacated. “Ah. I see why. Your Egypt, is it not? You are married to it, and all the –“

“It is _ordinary_ to love,” Erwin stared out of the palace into the plains, the huts and the slaves. “My love is the iron in my sword now.”

“ _Rome_ used to be the iron in your sword!” The lieutenant spat, his eyes burning and aquiline nose catching the light of the sun, making him took terrible, Herculean. “And now it is _Egypt?_ ”

He snarls the word.

“Yes, it is me.” Levi threaded into the meeting room. “My, my, Mike – I always knew you were a barbarian from the beginning. Just like you Romans to thunder and scream in the house of God. What is the matter? Is Rome finally at war with Egypt? Do I finally get to see your little white men fall like pawns?”

“General Smith is needed in Rome, my king,” Mike bows deeply. Below the hard shell of loyalty to his empire there is a part of the lieutenant that is loyal only to Erwin. If this was what Erwin loved, then so be it. “He must depart immediately and try to placate Nile, before he declares himself as Caesar.”

“Leave.” Levi snaps, to Mike, Hanji, and the other advisers that had followed him in. “All of you, bastards, eunuchs, barbarians and traitors – _leave_ my sight.”

Erwin is still by the balcony.

“You are leaving Egypt, then?” Levi smiles, sardonic. Erwin is silent. What a language they have – silence, and sympathetic vibrations of sighs. “To die in battle, I presume? To kill yourself perhaps. Martyr of Rome, General Erwin Smith, orator and leader.”

He whispers something inaudible, pain catching in this throat like a delicate bone. Erwin spins around and walked to Levi, held him with his fingertips on the Pharaoh’s spine and his other hand on Levi’s wrist. Levi turns his face away when Erwin tries to kiss him.

“Will you not be an ally to Rome then?” Erwin smiles somewhat sadly, his teeth glinting in the carmine sunset light.

“I was never an ally to Rome,” Levi spits, pushing Erwin back. “I am a _God,_ you heathen! You –“

“You are arrogant, Egypt,” Erwin grasps his shoulders and shakes him and Levi catches a flash of red-hot anger, the burning touch of the dunes at midday. “You think your river will flood yearly, your slaves will work daily, your eunuchs uncomplaining, your cattle fat. We do not have that luxury. I will leave you.”

“You will _not,”_ Levi’s eyes were blown open and full. “You will remain. I command it.”

“You? You command it?” Erwin laughs, golden and rich, a precarious bolt of humor touching their disappointment. He slides his hands down Levi’s slim waist, his hips, his firm buttocks. “You have done enough commanding.”

Levi bites back a moan as the general slid to his knees and lifted aside his clothes, pressing his lips to his hardness. Breathing raggedly, Erwin took Levi into his mouth and ran his teeth along the shaft – stiffening his tongue and dipping it into his slit. Erwin’s own hand scrambled downward to find his own hardness, stroking himself as he took Levi even deeper into his throat. Rome submissive to Egypt like this? He wished. Levi threw his head backward, his eyeliner smudging from sweat as his cock was engulfed in a wet heat, the slow suction of Erwin’s mouth almost making him come right there. He looks down, Erwin’s eyes stared up at him, blue, light – his cheeks hollowed around the cut and carved cheekbones. Yes, he thinks – Rome submitting to Egypt. He thrusts inward, smiling as Erwin chokes, and continues swallowing around his cock, before moving backward, his lips wet and his chin shining.

“Come to bed, Pharaoh,” Erwin leads Levi and his painful erection to the bed, unbuckling his own tunic and tossing it aside, but keeping the belt in his hands. He watches Levi settle into the bed, lay down with his legs spread lewdly – expectant. “I will be tying your hands to the bedpost. Is that all right, my king?”

“Anything is all right, bastard,” Levi arched his neck, exposing his collarbone. “Tie them, quickly, and fuck me.”

Erwin tied one hand to a bedpost with his belt, and found another rope from the curtains to tie the other to the opposing post. Levi was open, his cock touching his stomach and Erwin crawls in between his legs, pulling back the younger man’s foreskin to expose his head, swirling his tongue lightly around it.

“You are mine, and you are no God.” Erwin stands on his knees to tower over the tied-up king. His body is moist with sweat, his collarbones bright, and Levi thinks deliriously – _you_ are. Erwin’s teeth on his nipple made him shudder softly, thrusting his cock against the man’s slick skin, but Erwin ignored it, grazing his teeth over the sensitive skin of Levi’s nipple, using his finger to stimulate the other. Levi moaned through his teeth, almost sobbing in his neediness to get fucked.

“Please –“ He looks up at Erwin. “Please – Erwin, I –“

“You will call me by the title I deserve.” Erwin looks up and there is darkness in his eyes. “Caesar.”

“ _Fuck you,_ ” Levi spits. “Rome has no more Caesar.”

Erwin looks balefully at Levi, and draws a hand across his cock, before ignoring it again, letting it bob painfully on his stomach. He brings his face down to Levi’s hole and parted his cheeks, licking lazily. Levi moaned again, his voice high and breathy. The hard ridge of Erwin’s erection was pressing against his thigh as his tongue opened his hole up, warm and probing, and Levi’s manhood stood even harder, precome dripping, sliding down his balls. Erwin looks up at him and straightens up, smiling.

“Do you want to get fucked?” The room was dark now, and his lover the only light. “You know what to ask.”

“Come up,” Levi panted, his face shining with effort. “Come up to my ear, darling, I want to whisper it to you.”

“Yes, good,” Erwin places his knees on either side of Levi and leans on him, their cocks rubbing together to give Levi the friction he needed. “Tell me –“

“Closer,” Levi urges, inhaling the seawater scent of the general’s sweat, moving his chin against Erwin’s shoulder. He bites, dragging his teeth along the muscle hard and listening to the sobbing groan Erwin gave as he thrust against Levi’s cock. He pulls back, his eyes livid, and he places a finger to Levi’s lips.

“Bite, and I will kill you and burn this palace down-“ Erwin mutters, and watches as Levi sucks on his fingers, hips thrusting weakly into the air. He inserts a finger, Levi was hot and clenching around him as his ragged breathing puffed into the hot air. He fucks Levi slowly with the finger, curls it to make the torture worse as tears snake down Levi’s cheeks, his cock weeping even more precome that landed at the base. Levi rocked upward as Erwin began using two fingers, then three – fucking him slowly as he began to whine, his breath catching on every monosyllabic word.

“You’re tight, so tight,” Erwin grunted, his hair plastered to his forehead. “But I know you’re merely an Egyptian harlot.”

Levi mewled as the insult is coupled with Erwin removing his fingers – leaving him gaping and empty, yearning as his writs began to chafe.

“Please,” he begs, “Please, _Caesar_ , I need you in me.”

“Damn you,” Erwin gets up on his knees, a snarl at his lips. He lifts Levi’s hips, opens his legs and slides his cock against his wet and willing entrance, lets it ride it along the crack. “Say it once again, harlot –“

“Caesar!” Levi begs, and Erwin thrusts in tenderly, his eyes wanton. His thighs tighten as he pushes in and out of Levi, his cock enveloped by the moist heat. Erwin grips Levi’s cock loosely, and began to pound it in rhythm with their thrusting, slow, slow, and quick, breathy. Levi’s chest is shimmering and his eyes are smeared and grey, beautiful desert king, and Erwin’s hips begin to stutter, losing the rhythm as his cock reaches a familiar cliff.

“Caesar – please…” He uses a fingernail to flick at the slit of Levi’s cock, and the man yells as the come shoots hot onto Erwin’s chest – and Erwin himself bows over his lover, coiling and coiling and suddenly springing to a release like trails of fire in midwinter. He pulls out of Levi’s now-sticky entrance, gasping, and collapses next to the man. He reaches up to untie Levi’s hands and rub his wrists, kissing them where they chafed. The pharaoh tiredly brings up the sheet to wipe at his come on Erwin’s chest, and in that moment he sees Levi’s eyes are brimming with tears.

“Was I too rough?” Erwin strokes Levi’s jawline, and sighs.

“No,” Levi exhales, and in the darkness the glimmer of tears shone on his temple. “Caesar. You all… all of you just want to be Caesar. You will leave me for that dream. You will leave Egypt to be a Caesar.”

“No,” Erwin kisses Levi’s neck. “I will return to Egypt, and to my Egypt. I will spit on the opportunity of getting to be Caesar. I’m sorry. You were right – Rome has no more emperors, and we do not need a Roman emperor. I am only yours, Egypt.”

“Then don’t _leave_ ,” Levi sobs into the darkness, shuddering. “Don’t leave Egypt and say you love it.”

“I will.” Erwin moves closer, rests his golden head on Levi’s chest. Levi was everything, so much fight, fury, heat and brilliance. He can hear the fiery thrum of blood in his veins. Unsteady. “I will leave, and I will return. I promise, I will return and with me I will bring all the wealth of Rome.”

Levi laughs.

“Go then,” he sits up. “Go now, and let me see you in that battle armor you always denied me.”

“I will not be wearing armor!’ Erwin laughs, sitting up and groping for his tunic. “We will save that for another day. I will give you the opportunity to remove my armor, piece by piece.”

“Go and give morale to your soldiers, pervert,” Levi looks beautiful in the half-light. The night seemed to breathe in his presence. “Go and save Rome, bring it light and nurture.”

As Erwin’s back outlined in the doorway faded, so did Levi’s smile.

“And leave Egypt in famine.”

-

“You imprisoned Pixis, Nile,” Erwin tries to explain. “He is one of the triumvirs, he is, by right – to be given diplomatic rights.”

“Erwin,” Nile lounged on the chair, his hair flopping over his face and he rubbed his beard. “I am _not_ your enemy. We studied together as boys. We grew up in the same street. I will not imprison you, nor will I take away –“

“Yes, but you want to be Caesar,” Erwin rises from his seat and points to Nile. “You wish to be the sole ruler and for the sake of our empire I will never permit that. Not without outright war.”

“What do you know of war, Smith?” Nile laughs. “With barbarian armies of the North, or the wild ones in the east, yes, you can be a hero. You can orate at Darius Caesar’s death and sail to Egypt like an emperor. You can live in Egypt for a year and enjoy the fruit of the land. But do you really think you can be at war with your own country?”

“No,” Erwin smiles, gripping his fists and clenching his jaw. “I will go to war with you _for_ my country and empire.”

“You will be lying to yourself,” Nile slams a hand on the table. “Who doesn’t want to be Caesar? Don’t lie – I know you do as well. Fine. Have it your way – have your army, and have Egypt if you love it that much. Declare yourself king there, but I am warning you, do not interfere in state po-“

“I _am_ state politics!” shouted Erwin, his eyes wild and fists curling even tighter. “And damned be this empire if I hand it all to you! You ask – do I want to be Caesar. yes, of course I want it. I want it, but I push it down within me because me as Caesar, or you as Caesar will not work for the benefit of this empire.”

“Get yourself back to your Egypt,” Nile spits. “Prepare yourself. I will show you, General Erwin – which one among us is the true Caesar.”

Erwin storms out of the stone building and down the steps into the busy, crowded street and the stench of shit and urine everywhere. What would Levi think of such a place as this? He walks and walks, past the barracks and bathhouses, past the homes and shops until he reaches the end of the city. It is miles and miles of tightly spaced green trees. He squints over the horizon, and the general sees, in the shimmering wind and black trees, a desert. Untangling the crisscrossed lines of his political career, a single dark arrow points south-east, linear and solid, a beginning and an end shining like a mirage. The promise of a desert.

-

One night they’d been tangled in each other, Erwin had pressed his face into the Pharaoh’s chest and listened to him murmur nothing into Erwin’s blonde hair, slept with one hand fisted in Erwin’s for the fear that he would wake up and his lover gone. Once, Levi had woken shaking, tossing and turning on the right side of the bed and Erwin had drawn him to his chest but quietly, quietly. Erwin’s shoulder ached in the morning from the weight of him.

Another night and they are burning white with comet's tail fury, throwing something across the room that shatters. Screaming that Erwin hated Levi, that he hated Egypt, he hated Rome. Levi tells him to leave, he never wanted him there in the first place, he shouldn't have come. Erwin said he wished he could leave, that he could depart far, far away from Levi and the pain he brought. He storms out, ripping the curtains.

"Do you really want to leave?" Levi asks Erwin’s spine when he gets back. “Do you wish to leave Egypt again?

"Do you want me to?" Erwin looks down at his hands.

"Would the Nile ever want drought?” Levi whispers into Erwin’s neck. “Stay with me forever, Roman.”

Later in the night, stars blinking away, he brushes Erwin’s arm with his fingertips, hovers close to his ear and whispers, "Please stay."

“I can’t leave Egypt,” the reply comes, soft, soft in the night. “I can’t leave, Egypt.”

-

“The Romans are at the port in Alexandria,” Hanji rushes into the room. “General Erwin, I know you said your army is prepared but their fleet looks far more numerous than your own, splendid warships and countless soldiers. I suggest a retreat, and a com-“

“ _No_ ,” Levi snapped, drawing himself closer to Erwin. “I will send in my own army by tomorrow. Our combined forces can –“

“Respected Pharaoh,“ Hanji began, her eyes blazing. “There is no way our troops will –“

“They will.” Levi snaps, and looks at Erwin. “Military uniform. Finally. I was beginning to wonder if you were really a general.”

“Will you truly send me your army?” Erwin looks earnestly at his lover.

“Of course I will.” Levi smiles, and takes hold of Erwin’s hands. “Egypt and Rome. Sun and wind. Amon-Ra. See you soon, general – I will command a fleet twice as big as yours. Bellow orders twice as loud.”

“A kiss before I leave, then?” Erwin pleads, and draws Levi up into his arms, enveloping him like a sandstorm until Levi felt it was impossible to breathe. He is unsure suddenly, what year it is, or what country he ruled. He fits so snug into the space between Erwin’s shoulder blades that it was not probably that he belonged anywhere else. He sinks into him further, just a minute longer, let the wars stop and time end – for just one more minute.

“Levi,” Hanji sighs after Erwin is given a ceremonious farewell. “We cannot send him an army. The Nile hadn’t flooded this year. Our troops are nowhere near ready. As you would have known, had you not been… busy…”

“We have more ground troops than the romans,” Levi sighs, pressing his fingers into his eyes. “Send them, at least.”

“Levi, they’re starving!” Hanji bows, but her voice was harsh. “You can’t send anybody to Alexandria, your promise was false and you knew it. You wanted to give him confidence and you have _done_ that, so please do not risk our own country for his empire.”

“He risked his empire for me.” Levi whispers. “He wanted to be Caesar too.”

He misses Erwin, the cloying smell of him, sweet lips. How he could spin straw into gold, fiction with words, roads into carpets. He hates himself.

“Then so be it,” Levi snaps, looking to the stillness and dust of the north. Thinks of Erwin’s fingers within him, and he hates himself for his childishness, his rash decisions and his games. “Don’t send them. Let us see the might of the Romans against each other.”

He raises his chin and crosses his legs, and looks every bit the Pharaoh.

Three days later, a slave comes with a message. “Egypt, I am betrayed.” Levi thinks of Erwin, how he looked at Levi like the Egyptian sun and today was the eclipse. But what Erwin did not know was that for him, the general was the sun: radiant, blinding, terrifying in his anger. And it was that anger that he was dreading now, head in his hands. He thinks of Erwin’s knotted veins, the timbre of his raised voice, the breaking of clay and pottery in the midst of arguments. He wants to start over. He wants a clean slate. No arguments, no Egypt and Rome but only Erwin and Levi. He looks up through his fingers, and sees the bowed head of the slave.

“Tell him I am dead. He will come for the funeral, and I will present myself to him, living and loving and he will forgive me. Yes, slave, tell him I am dead.”

-

“Your Egypt has betrayed us, Erwin.” Mike sighed, bandaging his arm. “I have told you time and time again, the pharaoh came into power at a young age, that he is spoiled and that he seeks only attention and fulfillment. He does not know he could stopper your love with such a thing as this, and-“

“Do you think my love is stoppered?” Erwin’s eyes gleam blue, and his smile returns to his face after three days, drawing across the pale skin like a wave. “I am angry with him for his betrayal, I hate him for his empty promises, but he is Egypt. And I love him, with all his sandstorms and mirages.”

“Nile will be Caesar,” Mike tied the bandage tighter around his arm. “You are aware of that, are you not? You are betraying Rome for a lover.”

“No,” Erwin stands up, testing his weight on his strained leg. “I will go to Rome and fight for the Republic again, you need not worry. This time, I will take Egypt with me by force, Levi and his troops. We will trounce Nile – and instate trustable triumvirs.”

“Good,” Mike smiles finally, taking a deep breath of the air. “Watch close, a slave comes. I suppose he’s bringing news of your Levi and his apology.”

“Yes, what did the Pharaoh say?” Erwin towered over the slave, smiling. “Has he apologized? Begged my forgiveness and safe return to him?”

“No, General.” The slave bowed deeply, his bald head shining. “He said nothing, sir.”

“Nothing?” Mike scoffed. “He sent you back with no reply? That is typical of that blasted boy, I will shake some sense into him the moment we are back in –“

“Sir,” the slave looks up, backing away through the doorway so as to not incur any wrath upon him. “Sir, the Pharaoh has died. Adviser Hanji sent word with me.”

Erwin’s brain flits to try and pinpoint the moment, nail it down like gossamer, but it’s elusive and ethereal, like all truths are. He knows this though: he just kept falling, his heart rending with sharpness sending shatters throughout his body. He collapses forward, hand over heart as Mike supports him from behind with a strong arm. He feels his throat tearing, his eyes burning as he retches on the floor. Levi would have hated to see this. His Egypt, his sun and wind, Amon-Ra. He had brought him into the turbulence of his own life and it had killed the king, _he_ had killed him. What Caesar? What Empire? His Egypt was drying up with famine and he had run away to see his own army, he had sent a message announcing Levi’s betrayal – and with it he has _killed_ him. He gropes on the floor for his sword, and Mike kicks it away from Erwin, holding tight to his shoulders.

“Lieutenant –“ Erwin begs. “Run me through with that sword.”

“No, I would rather run myself through with it. General, if I pick that sword up – I will run myself through with it to prevent you from doing so. You have war ahead of you, you have a _life_ ahead of you, Erwin.”

“No,” he commands, looking upward, his face white and tortured. “It is an order. Bring me my sword.”

“No.”

“ _Damn_ you –“ Erwin rages, lunging for the sword himself and gripping it in shaking hands. “My whole life, you are all so stubborn. I have lost it all, and I cannot bear to walk this desert. You will not stop me Mike, it is an _order_.”

Pain. There is pain more than the injury he has ever known, there is a burning and throbbing blooming within him like a rapid flower. Blood spatters to the floor and tears brim in his eyes as he collapses again into Mike, staining the lieutenants tunic with scarlet. He coughs, and wonders if Levi had been in this much hurt, had he been in flames like this wildfire in his breast, the long bursts of pain with each breath. Fire bursts in his chest, but he is still not yet dead, he is still clear headed and bright eyed.

“What is this? Not dead?” He laughs at himself, gripping Mike’s tunic as his fingers slipped in his own blood. “Not dead?”

“What have you done, sir?”

“Not dead?” Erwin sags forward even more. “Could I not do even this?”

“Take me to him, then,” he rests his head onto Mike’s stained shoulder. “Leave me alone with the body. Perhaps Amon or Jupiter wants me to die beside him.”

-

“What is this treachery?” Erwin smiles weakly, his eyes full but happy, glittering blue in the lonesome light of Levi’s quarters. The sheets are stained liberally with red and the sun was sinking behind the open balcony. Erwin blinks, and tears roll down his temples, his cracked lips stretched in a smile. “Not dead?”

“What have you done?” Levi almost screams, his hands frantic on Erwin’s face. “I thought you were safe in the battle, that’s what they had said – they had said you were all right, and,”

“I am dying, Egypt, dying,” Erwin murmurs through pale, almost blue lips. “It is only fitting you are by me, my desert mirage.”

“You have done this to yourself?” Pain sparks in Levi like tinder, his own actions crashing down on him like a landslide. “I’m so sor –“

“Shh,” Erwin’s teeth were shining with blood in his loving smile. “Not when I am dying, Egypt. The sun and the wind, that’s all I want to hear.”

“Amon and Ra,” Levi looks at the ravaged body, his own fingers icy enough with guilt that the dying man felt warm.

“Egypt –“ the general declares for the final time, and his white eyelids close on blue eyes, the blonde lashes fanning them so innocently it was impossible to believe he would never wake. Levi gets up from the stained bed and goes to the balcony, his face whitening as he stands on the sandy floor. A snake had slithered onto the railings and he stretches his hand out to let the thing crawl on his arm, curling up to his shoulder. An asp, full of poison, full of hate – like he himself had been. He walks to Erwin’s body sprawled on the bed, cheeks already drained of blood to the extent the scarlet on his lips looked ghastly.

“Do you think you are the only one noble enough to die for love?” Levi asks the body, laughing through his nose. He raises his hand and smacks the asp’s head – the snake reared and bit him on the shoulder. Levi begins laughing as the poison spreads through his body, his eyes wide and dark, his hair wild and eyeliner streaking down his face. His laughter turns to delirious gasping, and slowly – he falls beside the already present corpse on the bed.

Out of the balcony, the Egyptian sun sinks below the Nile and the silence belies that the gusty wind has stopped whistling.

-

****

_"The odds is gone,_

_And there is nothing left remarkable_

_Beneath the visiting moon."_

 

**\- Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra-**

 

**Author's Note:**

> the lines "i am dying, egypt, dying" and "oh? not dead?" is directly from shakespeare's antony and cleopatra. 
> 
> also yes yes very much drama but that's how the original play ended... with even more death, actually.
> 
> anyway, please do leave a review if you have enjoyed reading - i'll truly appreciate it.


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